The Road to True Discipleship: A Comprehensive Guide to Spiritual Maturity Where We Will Be Certain That We Are in Complete Accord with God

By Rob Pohlman

Over the last twenty-five years, God has been preparing Rob Pohlman for presenting this book to the Christians of this age. Rob shows us what we have been programmed to believe by the world and how this differs from the will of God for us. He shows us in detail the realities of Gods kingdom and our place in it as mature disciples of Christ who are able to contribute to the glory of God right here on this earth and prepares us for the kingdom to come. Join him on the journey toward spiritual maturity that God so deeply desires for us to display and enjoy. It will not be an easy journey, but it will prove to be well worth the effort and life changing in every aspect of your life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512718720

Rob Pohlman

Rob Pohlman is a seasoned veteran and a successful captain of industry in his sixth decade of life. He has experienced this world through twenty years of military service as a paratrooper and through the management and training of an explosives company. Rob brings many insights to offer you in the lessons of life that have encompassed thousands and thousands of relationships and hard-learned lessons from the school of hard knocks. Born and raised in Iowa, he now lives in Waycross, Georgia, with his loving wife and fellowships with a religious congregation in the area.

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Copyright © 2015 Rob Pohlman.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Scripture taken from the Amplified Bible, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-1873-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1874-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-1872-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015918413

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/13/2015

Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1:   Life in This World before Knowing God

Chapter 2:   Prevenient Grace

Chapter 3:   Spiritual Receptivity

Chapter 4:   Commitment

Chapter 5:   The Evolution toward Spirituality in the Flesh

Chapter 6:   The Evolution toward Spirituality in the Spirit

Chapter 7:   Activity of the Holy Spirit

Chapter 8:   The Primacy of Yahshua

Chapter 9:   The Primacy of the Torah

Chapter 10:   Learning to Live with the Holy Spirit

Chapter 11:   Learning to Love God

Chapter 12:   Learning to Love Man

Chapter 13:   Faith, Wisdom, and Righteousness

Chapter 14:   Applying What You Understand in Life

Chapter 15:   Walking the Narrow Path in Maturity

Chapter 16:   Ways of Thinking and Conduct in the Kingdom of God

Chapter 17:   Ways of Thinking and Conduct—Continued

My Exhortation

Appendix

About the Author

Introduction

I have never had aspirations of being a writer. I know that my style of communicating is often wordy, and I have been told that I run on in my sentences and people will probably lose patience with my style and not want to continue reading my thoughts. I offer my thoughts in this book as I think them, and I hope that you can follow along with me in my mind. I truly hope that you can relate to me in this and find the meaning of what I offer, because what I have to say is very important for our spiritual wellbeing. In my humanity I am certain I will never measure up to the task, but I am going to give it a valiant effort just because I care for you and want the best for you. I was deep in communion with the Holy Spirit one day, and I was telling Him my concerns for my fellow man and said, I mourn for all the people in this world who go about life as they are, no closer to You, and the sad thing is they do not know any better. I wish there was something I could do to help them. Then I experienced the unction to go to my computer. I sat down, and in the shortest time, there appeared fourteen chapters all laid out from start to finish. Everything flowed in such a way as to appear that I had spent days organizing its format in great detail. To me, it all made so much sense in the way it was constructed, and I marveled at its thoroughness. It just flowed from the Holy Spirit, and He put it into my heart, This is what I want you to do. I was amazed and daunted. How was I ever to complete such a task? I am a man of limited means and abilities. How could I ever measure up and be successful? I spent the rest of the day arguing out my fears and concerns with Him, and with every disparaging thought that came to me, He had a counter argument that basically said, Do not despair. I will be with you through this. Everything will turn out fine…you will see. Only recently these experiences have become more prevalent in my life as I travel upon the narrow path with Him walking beside me, His arm around my shoulder as we go. He whispers in my ear and coaxes me on. At first He spent a large part of the time convicting me of my misconceptions and pointing out my shortcomings and failures, but recently He has been divulging truths that build upon what I have experienced in such a way as to start bringing everything about the kingdom of God together into focus with ever-increasing clarity. And for the first time in my life, I am free and confident just to follow Him with unquestioning faith wherever He leads me, and it is beautiful to experience. I want this experience for you, and if you will humor me in my own limited style and in my own meager way, I will attempt to share with you what God is showing me. Together we may move into something that brings God joy, and we will discover blessings most sincerely offered but not yet received. I want this so badly for you. Please accept my humble offering in the spirit it is intended.

The landscape of the mainstream Christian church has evolved and changed greatly in the last two thousand years. What started out as a Hebrew institution has gone through the Greek, Roman, Latin, German, and English languages and progressed to where it is today. People have studied and subsequently reinterpreted the basic tenets of our religion in an attempt to understand it better, and in the process it has been warped and stunted in how we as a modern society understand the will of God. What He said in the first-century church is nothing like what we believe and understand today. It is for us to reclaim what has been lost throughout the years. God’s message for us has been diluted and polluted by the Enemy so it has drifted as far away from its original intent as the east is from the west. Ultimately what we understand of what God laid out for us to follow in His Word is nothing like what He intended for us in the beginning. Originally believers of Yahshua (Christ) went to the synagogue to read the words of Moses. They were required to follow four basic requirements of conduct until they were integrated into the congregation, and fellowship concentrated on the teachings of Yahshua and study of the Old Testament—the only Scriptures available at the time. This was the true church—perfect in spirit and truth, God’s ideal community. This was the perfect church, and it was in the will of God. Christianity has grown like a great tree, sprouting in all directions, and in the process it has morphed into a colossal monstrosity that is nothing like its humble beginnings. Today there are many branches, and each is far from the trunk and going in so many directions so that they’re miles from the original path of righteousness.

If you will just let Him, God will work in an amazing and wonderful way and perform a miracle like that of creation in your life. He is truly the great rescuer. Every experience that we receive in this world is for a very serious and enlightening purpose to prepare us for eternity. What we do with the experiences that God lays upon our hearts determines our future in His kingdom and our ultimate reality to come.

Today I was working on this introduction, and I stopped to take a break. I went downstairs to check on the mail. Stuck in my door was this flier from a local Christian denomination that served as my lesson for what God was teaching me at that time, and I think you will benefit from my newfound insight.

This flier was titled How to Know For Sure—100%—You’re Going to Heaven in 5 Easy Steps!

1. First you have to come to the realization that you have violated divine will in your transgressions in life. You are in the wrong, plain and simple, and you cannot go back and fix that.

2. Next you must accept the fact that for every action you have committed, good or bad, you are going to be held accountable, and every penny of the damages will be held to your account in the end. No substitution other than your own soul will be accepted.

3. You are told that someone has come forward and paid the damages for your acts of disobedience in full, and to Him, you owe your allegiance. His name is Jesus Christ (Yahshua Ha Mashiach, the Messiah).

4. You are told in no uncertain terms that a free gift awaits you and that you will enjoy eternal life. All you have to do is willingly accept what is offered and be thankful, turn around, and start following Him in everything He teaches.

5. You must come to that place in your life where you are willing to cast your unwavering commitment that acknowledges who Yahshua is and wholeheartedly accept what He has done for you and acknowledge this to everyone you meet. Yahshua will do the rest as judge and jury to acquit you on that fateful day of reckoning.

The way this flyer was worded now in no way resembles what I have given to you. I reworded it because copyright law would not help me get approval for what they wrote. Trust me when I say that it was pure mainstream Christian salesmanship that allayed none of the finality that I gave it. The way I worded this information is as I would expect Yahshua (Christ) to say it, and if you look to what He said in the Gospels, you will agree with my estimation of reality.

This experience rang out to me like a gong echoing and reverberating from on high. It gave me a solid picture of the distance the modern mainstream Christian church has deviated from God’s truth. Here this church thought that making cold calls to sell God to the masses was the most important use of their time and resources. Surely they were not listening to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. They were resorting to using the ways of the world and the traditions of men to put forward the world of the Spirit—something that His Word says cannot successfully happen. People were not admonished to willingly and totally sacrifice their standing in the world and follow His teachings; however, they just need to make a condescending acceptance of a concept under consideration, and all things were completed for them. All they were being told to do was condescend to agreement with no life-changing experience involved. The problem with this is that the Spirit was the farthest party from the effort. He was not even considered or mentioned and He is the most important agent in the successful realization of God’s goals for us. It was obvious that this individual representing this congregation had no concept of who God is and what His purposes are for mankind and he did not know the true will of God. This event brought me to mourn for this lost soul who thought he was doing well with his life and was in the will of God. I only present this example as a view of what a true disciple of God should not think. I hope you will see the wisdom of guarding our thoughts about the essence of God’s message to us.

Let me paint a word picture for you so we can see where we are today and how the mainstream Christian church is conducting the business of God in this world. Let us envision where mainstream Christianity is in the schemes of God and see if we are hitting the mark. Picture a river with many people traveling along its shores. Standing waist-deep in the river are many people calling to the travelers on the shore like merchants hawking their wares at the city square. The passersby are coaxed and cajoled to come out into the river to see the shiny trinket that they are advertising. If they will just buy this beautiful necklace and put it on, they will be baptized in the river to seal the transaction. And presto/change-o, they will be set for life. If they will only put on this adornment and show it off to everyone else, they will have found their calling in life and will be assured of a blissful existence for eternity. Everything will go their way, and they will be in good standing with God forever—nothing else needed to be done. They are assured that God is eager for them to come to Him in this way and that this act is all He requires for eternal bliss and good-standing with this benevolent grandfather in the sky. All we have to do is be nice to people, come together once a week, socialize for an hour, and then go our way. If we want to do extra work for the mission of our peers, that is even better. The more work we do, the more righteous we will be considered by God. The amiable person then dunks the person in the river, immediately turns from him or her to the next passerby on the shore, and leaves the first person standing there all wet and wondering where to go from there. The newly baptized person climbs out of the river and goes home with a feeling of elation and secretly wishes he or she could dunk people like their new acquaintance. This is the most ardent desire that comes from this experience. Then the real world comes back into the picture and wears that feeling of elation down until it is extinguished or at least not as strong as it once had been and in the process nothing of value has been accomplished. This person continues on wondering if this is normal and assumes this is all there is to the new life with God and continues on for the rest of their life, thinking that they are just where they should be and they are pleasing God. They may have been shown the Scriptures and told to read them to know what God has to say to them. They may read them, or they may not. If they do, there will be questions, and they will accept any insight that is offered from everyone who claims to have the answers and conducts themselves with authority. They are not sure and are often confused, but they are assured just to believe and accept the mystery of God in faith. Then everything will be all right in the end. And so millions of people go about their lives in this fashion, foolishly convinced that they are in good standing with God.

Let me assure you in the most urgent way I can that you have been sold a cheap copy of the real goods. That bright and shiny necklace you bought will turn green on your neck. You have been bamboozled. A set of blinders have been strapped to your head, and you do not see the whole road. You stand a good chance of going off a high and dangerous cliff to certain doom. I am frantic to save you, and only your acceptance and acknowledgment of what I offer will head you off in the proper direction to eternal bliss and happiness as God intends for you. I know that you will wonder if I have your best interest in my heart, and you will wonder if you should believe my shouts of alarm. All I ask is that you listen and then do your own research in due diligence. See for yourself if what I say is true. I say that you should not trust anyone with the truth and your future in it. Search it out for yourself by every means available to you. I will provide references at the end of this book so that you can study and determine if what I say is true, and in this way you may learn with confidence what the truth is. It is truly in God’s will for you to be well-informed, mature disciples that can stand on your own feet and guide others in confidence to Him. He wants you to be a warrior for truth who is in full accord with His will. He wants you to willingly and confidently join his army to fight the enemy hoard, and when you are ready, you can make a difference in His kingdom. Come with me and let us investigate what God’s will is for us, and let us commit ourselves to making our efforts conform to His will in all things. Let us make Him proud of us and let us walk in this world, knowing that we are truly righteous in His eyes and welcomed servants who will be blessed with His good favor. The method of spiritual development that the Holy Spirit has taught me is to inspect everything I experience with in-depth inspection, meditation, and contemplation along with prayer. If the matter does not bring me peace by this time, I am to resort to prayer and fasting, waiting upon Him to hear what He has to say to me. You should spend at least as much time in these pursuits as you do in reading. Discuss what you find with Him and reason, argue, and chew upon everything fully to get the full flavor of the presentation. If what I have to say to you is not true and just and pure, I expect you to speak up and say so. On the other hand, if what I say is shown to you by God to have credence in your eyes, take it into yourself and share it with everyone you meet. I only want what is best for you. The motivation for me to write this book is solely your best interest and future well-being, and I offer it to you in love. I want to enable you to proudly say that you do not have a religion. You have a true relationship with the one true God, and this new way of life is happiness and peace indescribable. Like the old saying goes, Enthusiasm is contagious. Let’s have an epidemic!

Just for those people who want to grow in the Spirit and really get to know our God in a much better way, I would like to offer an e-mail address for you to give your input on your observations. This will not be a place to blog, and it is not a place for social media. Intelligent and thought-provoking discussion of what is covered in my books will be more than welcome, and I will discuss topics directly with you. No one else will see my responses but you. I may reserve the right to include our discussions without your name as fodder for future books, but that is as far as it will go. The e-mail address to contact me directly is [e-mail].

I pray that God will bless you more than

you can imagine!

CHAPTER 1

Life in This World before Knowing God

When we are born, we are a blank slate waiting for stimulus to guide our presumptions about happiness, peace, and contentment. These considerations are what humans generally use to measure success in this life. The only thing we bring with us into this life that is truly ours is our innate personality. Everything in our world must conform to the reality that our experiences dictate as real and valid. In our fallen nature as fleshly creatures addicted to the temporal world we inhabit, our five senses tell us what our reality is at any given time, and the mind holds sway over all other considerations in life. Assumptions and guessing abounds and the world as we know it is all understood through happenstance. Without the author of truth and reality, we can only guess and reason with flawed minds about what is right, true, and just. As we go through life, we modify our views and evolve in our reasoning based on our experiences, and those are dependent on our thoughts and reaction to this temporal world. This is the only thing we understand with any certainty (if certainty can be attained at all on our own). Our life and everything connected to it is shaded by the reasoning of others in our life experience, what we reason from their actions, and what we assume they are thinking while they are interacting with us—all of which drives our conceptions of the world we inhabit.

The first five years of life determine a great deal about our concepts of safety, relationships, and self-worth. This time period molds how we think much like the way plaster is molded and then never moved again—a mold that can only be broken or shaved down to a different shape that’s smaller than it was in the beginning. As we age in this life, this mold may be changed in small ways, but the overarching shape will remain basically unchanged as we tenaciously cling to our concept of the nature of the world. Our method of reasoning is established in concrete—destined to never change without traumatic repercussions for our images of safety, relationships, and self-worth.

Confidence in one’s safety is critical to healthy development in all ages, but it is especially important in infancy. It sets the stage for venturing out into the world with confidence. A child who feels safe in all situations is the result of a nurturing environment and a resilient, healthy point of view, regardless of the circumstances that may arise. An adequate understanding of human nature and the establishment of relationships is a concept that can be satisfied in an endless array of possibilities. Those who are blessed with mother figures, father figures, and siblings to interact with are becoming fewer in this day and age. It is a blessing that infants do not remember the first few years of life. The turmoil that complete recollection would cause would be devastating to any budding personalities. This first act of forgiveness in our lives goes unnoticed in the world, but it is a true blessing. I have never heard anyone mention the awesome grace bestowed by our loving God. Perhaps this negligence is the result of new parents making mistakes in their efforts or the chaotic circumstances of the environment. Any way you want to look at this important aspect, many possibilities could have a very negative and damaging effect on the healthy development of such fragile, growing personalities. God has foreseen this possibility and put in place a very wise developmental remedy that protects all of us during this uncertain period.

The last area of critical development is that of self-worth. As we grow into adulthood, our grandparents, parents, siblings, and all those outside of the family in social situations mold our concept of value. In retrospect, we can see that the interactions and realizations that occur through the maturation process determine our personal value apart from the teachings of God. Through no fault of their own, most people place the exhibited and imagined values of others higher in their estimation of themselves than what they are told to think and what they feel. Most people are confined to a constant worry about what others will think of them, almost to the point of paranoia. By just looking at three areas of cognitive thinking and the values we develop over time, we can see the overpowering influence the world has on each one of us. It is sad to say, but without positive role models in our lives, we can become messes—even with the most loving and nurturing environment. We just drift along in blissful ignorance of what our true reality really is and what it should be, and very few of us have mentors that look at our stinking thinking and show us where we are wrong. We just blunder along, hoping for the best.

Soggy Potato Chips

Let me share an analogy that will illustrate the foolishness of this temporal, fleshly world we inhabit without knowledge of God. It will show the serious person what we do in our ignorance. A family of children may come home from school, and they may be accustomed to enjoying a snack to tide them over until supper. No one is home to greet them, but there is a bowl of soggy potato chips sitting on the kitchen table. The children know it was there from the day before. Nothing palatable is found in the refrigerator, and each one is too short and unimaginative to reach the cabinets. They get rid of their coats and books, and they congregate at the table. They look around to see what they can find in the vicinity. Normally there is something on the table that is fresh, but not today. Now let us say there are four children. In my own experience, I have found that human nature influences about 10 percent of the population into making a concerted effort to find something on their own, regardless of what their peers are doing in a given situation. Out of this group, none takes the initiative to investigate any further. They just look at one another and consider the only obvious choice at hand. Some leave the room, but they soon come back, expecting something to change, and then they are not sure what to do. Finally the oldest child picks up a chip and examines it. He sees that it is greasy and stale, and he puts it back in the bowl. A little time goes by, and another child picks up a chip, examines it closely, and then tastes it. It is not as bad as he thought it would be, so he swallows it. It was not as good as he would have liked; however, he survived the experience, and this is all he knows. So after a few minutes, he starts eating more. The other children are skeptical, but after a while they are all eating soggy potato chips! Until someone comes home and gives them something else (or until the children become satiated), they keep eating the soggy potato chips. The whole bowl will be gone by the time anyone comes home to stop them.

God has given people the innate ability to accept almost any situation in stoic silence until they happen to experience something different that is more acceptable. Now I am not a behavioral scientist who has established a successful experiment to prove this, but I would venture to say that only about 10 percent of people make the conscious effort to look for something else without cause. By nature, people of this world are as foolish as the creatures in the animal world. I differ in opinion from A. W. Tozer, who says that this is the reason the world is in such a sad state and does not enjoy the blessings of God. I am saying that we as a Christian nation don’t enjoy and realize these blessings because we don’t know any better in almost every case! The vast majority of people in this world have not discerned this possibility and live out their lives in ignorance of what may be possible. Even the mainstream Christian population accepts the status quo, thinking this is all there is in life. (I will address this topic more in depth in the chapter addressing prevenient grace.)

Now what can we say about human beings in this world without God? Where do we stand in the scope of things? Much has been said about the futility of humankind finding a place to start the quest for truth on firm bedrock. Volumes have been written about the search for truth, and in every case it has been determined that we cannot truly determine that ever-elusive truth on our own. What firm footing can be found in and of ourselves? Humanity flounders in uncertainty, trying to reason this dilemma. To truly invest ourselves in anything, we must have an unshakable faith in our assumptions. Science tries